my 4yo says she 'sees sparkles' at night when I am putting her to bed. She says she sees them every night and we've seen her with her hands up or standing up trying to catch them. She recently had a vision screening and that checked out fine. Anyone else have similar experience with visual disturbances? Do they occur with lows or highs? I'm not sure if this is D-related or if I should get her a more comprehensive eye exam. thanks
I always saw shining little lights at night that I knew weren't real when I was a kid. I think they stopped when I was nine, for the most part, although I still see them occasionally, especially if light goes from bright to dim very suddenly. I was reading about them the other day in Oliver Sacks' book Hallucinations and they are something that a fairly large portion of normal people have. I don't think it's diabetes related.
Two thoughts. First is migraines. DS gets them and visual issues are one of the warning signs. He is diabetic, but the migraines pre-date diabetes. Second is the possibility of floaters. DD has them. She's had diabetes since before she would be able to describe them so I'm not sure which came first. You can google "floaters in eyes" for a better description. That said, I've had issues with flashes of light that I could only see out of the corner of my eyes. In my case, it was bright magenta, or blasts of bright green, and it would flash and die. I developed a tic in one eye, too. I had my vision checked and a new prescription for my glasses took care of it. Something to do with eye strain, I guess.
I am thinking floaters on first instinct - next I am thinking is she seeing these every night? or just on nights where she is higher than normal? or lower?
I get floaters. I wouldn't describe them really as sparkles though. More like a bug is flying across my field of vision. If it is fleeting, I wouldn't think it was a migraine. I've had occular migraines. It was more like wavy vision and light sensitivity but I know that can vary with the person. But it was not fleeting. It went on for many hours. I did have what I would say was sparkles when I was pregnant. The one thing they mentioned was blood pressure, which it turned out not to be as my blood pressure was normal. I would say just take her to the eye dr. to rule out these things. A lot of times I've found with this type of thing, there is really no answer and it eventually goes away on its own. But good to always have the eyes checked out!
a few times my daughter had complained about her eyes where she would keep blinking which got us worried but her BS was normal. She doesn't get this too often but just wanted to mention it. It wouldn't hurt to get the eyes checked.
I've experienced that all my life and there doesn't seem to have ever been any complications from them. I grant that I am near-sighted and have astigmatism, but again they didn't seem linked. And you've already had your child's eyes tested and they tested fine, so I don't think I'd stress about it. It seems to be fairly common. Does your child also sneeze when she looks at the sun or gets bright light in her eyes? The two do sometimes seem to be linked, and achoo syndrome (yep, it's really called that ) is most common in blue eyes. It's another annoying sort of strange thing that is just its own strange thing. It's not known to have complications that I know of. If your child seems fine otherwise, I would just wait and see. It's common enough from what I've heard through my life that I don't think in the absence of other indicators that I'd stress over it, personally.
My daughter has mentioned something similar, and also has said something about not being able to see, which concerned me, although she is 5 and sometimes its hard to get what she means. We had her eyes checked and they are totally fine.
I would feel concern over her saying she's not able to see. The sparklies I don't think I'd be concerned over since I have experienced it all my life and know of many others who have, too, without any seeming issues arising directly from them. But Kira would say her eyes were dizzy (I think blurry, from the way she was saying it), and that was well before she was diagnosed. Interestingly, it happened twice and both times I asked she be checked for diabetes and was blown off. When your little one said she couldn't see, did you check her BG and it was normal?
Well the thing was that she told me about it hours later. it was in the evening and she said "this morning when everyone was still sleeping, I couldn't see" so who knows if she meant because it was dark or what. but since I know D can cause eye issues, I worried. This was maybe 6 months ago and she hasn't mentioned it again. I have experienced the sparkles myself, i think its happened when I've been light headed for whatever reason.
Oh, I see what you're saying. It really is hard when they can't articulate well. Sometimes when you try to clarity, it only gets more unclear, too. Sometimes being a parent is crazy-making, lol.
well she definitely does have an active imagination but I think she is seeing something. She sees them at bedtime when we've recently checked her sugar so she definitely isn't low and is not likely to be very high either. Or at least no more likely to be high then than any other time of the day. The vision check she had was just a screening at her ped so I think it probably can't hurt to go to the eye doc since she has never been before, just to check things out. Maybe it just has something to do with her eyes adjusting to the dark after turning off the lights.
I see really cool red and orange nebulous twinkly squares when light shifts from bright to dark - could just be a normal "magical" night thing. Hope it is.:cwds:
